3.5 inches of snow by 7 a.m.; more on the way

Schools closed, interstate traffic was down to 25 mph and heavy snow continued to fall Wednesday morning.

Lori Steineck CantonRep.com staff writer @lsteineckREP

CANTON By 8 a.m. this morning, troopers with the Ohio Highway Patrol's Canton post were addressing three weather-related crashes, schools had closed and county and state road plows were struggling to keep up with rapidly falling snow.

Brent Kovacs of the Ohio Department of Transportation said I-77 traffic that is normally 65 to 75 mph is down to "26 to 49 mph. We've had a lot of snow fall here very fast, right at morning rush hour."

Karen Clark, meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Cleveland office, said about 3 1/2 inches of snow fell between 4 a.m. and 7 a.m. Wednesday, "right before rush hour. It all came down real quick this morning."

She said another inch or 2 can be expected before it starts winding down around 11 a.m.

"It's a real quick-hitting event," she said.

Kovacs said all 18 snow plows in the multi-county district have been scouring the area, trying to keep ahead of the snowfall.

Troy Uphold, road maintenance superintendent at the Stark County Engineer's Office, said all 23 of the county's trucks have been out on the road since 4 a.m., adding that his drivers, too, are working to keep up with the snow.

"(It seems) we're getting 1 to 3 inches an hour our here," he said.

Asked for any trouble spots in the county, he said, "They're all bad."

The National Weather Service's Winter Weather Advisory remains in effect through 4 p.m. Wednesday with the chance of snowfall listed at 100 percent.

At 8:15 a.m., the Akron-Canton Airport was reporting snow and freezing fog with a temperature of 22 degrees, winds out of the north at 10 mph and a resulting wind-chill reading of just 11 degrees.

The airport was listing all arrivals and departures as being on time, and the local power companies - American Electric Power Co. and Ohio Edison Power Co. — were listing no outages.

For school closings, check The Canton Repository online at www.cantonrep.com.

Reach Lori at 330-580-8309 or lori.steineck@cantonrep.com.

On Twitter: @lsteineckREP

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